Rufus Wyman

Who was Rufus Wyman?

Rufus Wyman was the first physician and superintendent of the Asylum for the Insane, renamed in 1823 to McLean Hospital, part of the Massachusetts General Hospital system, and the first mental hospital in the state.

Wyman was born into a middle-class family in Woburn, Massachusetts, whose forebears had arrived in the state in the mid-seventeenth century. He received his early education at the local school, and then graduated from Westford Academy. He entered Harvard College in 1795 and graduated with from its medical school in 1799. He spent a year teaching school before starting his medical training with Dr. Samuel Brown and Dr. John Jeffries. He practiced with Dr. Jeffries for one year then moved to Chelmsford, Massachusetts where he established his practice. He was appointed a justice of the peace and came to be known as a compassionate and intelligent physician. He married in 1810 and the family grew to four sons and one daughter.

In Boston, a group of prominent citizens planned to establish a hospital to include an asylum for the insane since only one almshouse provided care. A corporation was formed, a charter was received from the State legislature, and fund raising was undertaken. An estate was purchased in Charleston to house the asylum. The mansion became the superintendents’ residence. The Trustees appointed Wyman as the first superintendent and physician of the asylum. Before taking office, the Trustees sent Wyman to New York and Philadelphia to inspect the existing asylums at New York Hospital and the Pennsylvania Hospital.